Lost in the Colaboration
by Andrea Harper
Summary: Poor Andrea, all she wanted was to go back to her room and take a nap. But fate didn't plan it that way, so now she's stuck in the past where nothing makes sense with her school's founders as children. There's a better summary with the rewrite.
1. Fresh Encounters

**I promised you a full summary did I not? Here she be. As a note, I decided I didn't like the original, so I re-wrote it. I have a chapter list, and I've added a couple chapter to fit the changed plotline. There's a lot more character development now, and more descriptive writing. It was mostly written while I was eating gingersnaps and drinking Rootbeer, so any really weird stuff shall be credited to that. And it's really hard to type with my hand in a very long brace. Anyway, enjoy the show, and tell me what you think of the re-write. Feedback is very, very, very good.**

_ Andrea didn't think that getting into the final, ultimate battle with her partner to decide if men were better than women in everything would cause this much trouble. But it did, and now she's stuck 1500 years in the past, with no help put a pocket full of random objects, an obsolete computer, and her own wits. She can't tell anyone who she is or where she comes from, and she never paid any attention on history class except on how the old technology worked and why people used last names, and now she has a huge problem on her hands. It doesn't help any that the people she becomes friends with are the founders of the school she goes to, and that they're kids with very little idea what they're doing, or that in order to get home she has to figure out how to defeat an AI gone rouge at his own game. Life's never looked bleaker, but Andrea has a few tricks up her sleeves. Or more accurately, hidden in her boots and pockets. Kadic Jr. High is never going to look the same way at new, mid-year transfer students. Especially not crazy ones who know way too much about all their subjects and have issues with hacking into the school's mainframe._

Fresh Encounters

At three in the afternoon, a scanner opened, and a dark haired, Japanese girl practically fell out. She was unusually tired for such a late time in the day, but traveling to a virtual world will do that to you. After resting for a second, she walked over to the elevator and punched the up button after missing it twice.

"Welcome back to earth." A blond young man called as the elevator doors opened.

"I've heard that one too may times before. There's no need to make fun of the fact that I'm always devirtualized first, Jeremie." the girl snapped as she came up to lean on his chair.

"Odd!" Jeremie yelled, "You're loosing life-points too fast!"

"Jeremie! You're not listening to me!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Yumi." Jeremie replied, not listening to a word she was saying.

"Agh!" Yumi screamed, and stomped over to lean on the wall.

"There's a group of crabs headed your way." The computer hummed and whirred as Jeremie typed furiously, looking for anything that might help get his pink-haired crush safely to the tower she was headed for. Suddenly, he jerked upright as a spark from the screen zapped his nose, hitting a key with his elbow as he did so. The screen flickered slightly, and a very slight ripple shook the holomap. He blinked, shook his head, and stared curiously at the screen as something entirely unexpected happened.

Aelita screamed as the first shot was fired. She looked around desperately for any means of escape, only to find she was surrounded. Ulrich, noticing the one in front of her, ran forward. As it began charging the laser that would spell Aelita's doom, he stabbed it, dashing away again just before it exploded. Aelita whipped around, as the second crab scuttled closer without anyone noticing.

"ULRICH! THERE'S ANOTHER ONE BEHIN... Oh. It's gone now. Never mind."

By this point, Aelita wasn't the only one who had noticed the amazing disappearing crabs. Odd had attempted to shoot three, only to have them vanish as he fired.

"That makes no sense..." Jeremie muttered as he adjusted his glasses and tried to figure out what had happened. He didn't even notice as the screen flickered again, more violently, before going quite suddenly back to normal.

"What's going on?" Odd's rather annoyed voice asked over the intercom. "Why are they just vanishing?"

"I don't know! I can't figure out what I did!"

There was a moment of awkward silence, and then Odd spoke again rather hurriedly, "Well then, let's finish this."

They moved quickly and efficiently to the tower, Odd mopping up the last of the remaining opposition, destroying the crabs even as they vanished. As the last of Aelita's rather fluffy pink hair vanished from view, Ulrich turned to Odd as he heard a very loud smacking noise and a sharp Ow! from Jeremie.

"Yumi's obviously mad at somebody."

"I can tell."

The loud smacks continued, until, at last, Aelita came out, having deactivated the tower.

"Jeremie! We're finished!"

"That's -ow- good. Tell Yumi to stop hitting me!"

"You weren't listening to me!"

"OW!"

There was a scrabbling on the keyboard, and the three of them felt the familiar sensation of devirtualization as Jeremie's hurried typing took affect.

"Shall we go?" Odd asked with a grin. When they got to the supercalculator room, Yumi was hitting Jeremie with a rolled up newspaper as he cowered half-way under the desk. Ulrich and Aelita moved to separate the two as Odd took the newspaper away.

"He wasn't listening to me! And I'm cramping."

Aelita winced sympathetically, and continued to tug Jeremie out from under the desk.

"You really should listen to her. Or at least hide all the newspapers." Odd remarked as he opened the item in question and began reading it.

"How old is this thing? This is the same one she hit you with last month."

"It is?" Ulrich asked, while holding Yumi back.

"And the time before that, and the time before that. And perhaps the time before that." Odd opened the newspaper again, and continued reading. Aelita managed to get Jeremie out from under the desk, and Ulrich helped Yumi to her feet. Jeremie, looking rather warily at Yumi, began closing programs and shutting off the monitor. Aelita put an arm around Yumi's shoulders and began leading her off.

"Let's go get you some painkiller. It should help."

"If he would just LISTEN to me we wouldn't HAVE this problem!"

Aelita smiled apologetically over her shoulder and walked into the elevator, pressing the up button once both the girls were inside.

"You really should listen to her."

"I do!"

"Not in her eyes. It may have something to do with this time of month. Or she could be lacking a 'vital nutrient' as you put it last time."

The boys moved to the elevator. By the time they reached the surface, both the girls were nowhere to be seen. They moved towards the still open hole leading straight down into the earth, heading back to the school they had unceremoniously cut to help save the world.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the five now heading back to school, the supercalculator flickered on. The virtualization program opened itself automatically. There was a new card beside the others, showing a girl with long, dark brown hair. It faded, and the program closed again. In the other room, one of the scanners opened, and the girl pictured on the card stepped out. Her fiery brown eyes flickered over the room, taking in everything at a glance.

"Okay. This is so not the Academy."

She moved out of the scanner and turned to take a closer look. The sleek, cylindrical tubes, connected by huge cables to the main power grid, didn't appear to pass her inspection.

_ This definitely isn't the Academy. They're so bulky, and what's with those cables? They're ugly! No! Bad! _Her hands twitched subconsciously as her inner artist complained about almost everything in the room. _It's so blah! It needs a coat of paint, and some contrast. And cheese. I like cheese. Am I in the museum again? They have good cheese, and lots and lots of obsolete stuff. Like these scanners. Why are the ones at the Academy prettier? Maybe it's because the founders designed them, instead of whoever made these. Who did make these?_

She moved on, turning to see the room from every angle, and spotted the elevator. She stood for a moment, staring at it, transfixed, and then practically ran over to it. _I've never seen one of those! Is it real? How does it work? This is an elevator, right?I've seen pictures in my history book. Apparently they were used before transporters were invented to move people quickly from floor to floor. They also used stairs. I don't get those. They still have them in important, official places, and I can't ever keep my balance on them. Not that I can ever keep my balance anyway. _ She frowned, and kicked the elevator door with a resounding clang. _Ow! That has to be in your top ten list of bad ideas, 'Drea. How do you open it? _She looked around for any form of control for the elevator doors, face lighting up when she spotted the buttons that were mounted onto the wall beside it. _I like buttons! Lots of buttons! Look at the buttons. What happens if you push them? Are they self destruct buttons? I like self-destruct buttons. _She tentatively reached out and pushed one of them, causing the doors to open, and she leaped back in alarm. She promptly ran into elevator, the picture, except for the fact that she was obviously far too old, of a young child who had discovered something new. _Look! More buttons! These ones have arrows on them. What did the history book say about them? Oh, right! Down arrow means go -1 level, up arrow means go +1 level, otherwise use the number to go to a specific level. But there aren't any numbers! Press a button. Which button? Down button. _The elevator doors closed, and she felt a rumble as the floor started to move downwards. She threw herself to the floor and cowered there for a moment, before realizing that it wasn't an earthquake, and that she was being silly. She got her feet again, smiling sheepishly, even though there was no-one there to see her. The doors opened and she walked out, marveling at all the wires and cables.

"Jane? Where are you?" She called. There was no reply, and she looked around rather desperately. "Jane? Jane? Can you here me? Where are you?" She stopped, having realized the more pressing issue. "More importantly, where am I? I'm lost!" She wailed. _Is this someone's idea of a prank to play on the crazy girl? Derek probably set me up. Stupid, dirty- no, don't think about him, focus on the problem at hand. Where am I, why aren't I where I'm supposed to be, and how do I get back? Pretties! _She had finally spotted the supercalculator, a rather amazing feat as it took up most of the room. _More obsolete software! I wonder how it works? Is is some form of computer? Does it obey voice commands? What's it supposed to do?_

"Computer, On! Computer, On!"_ Hmm... Must be slow. Foolproof method should help. _She kicked it, this time changing the angle of her foot so that the thick sole of her boot protected her slightly damaged toes. The computer flickered into life, unsurprisingly, as she had hit the monitors manual On button, not that she knew that. _See, Jane? _She thought to her nonexistent friend,_ Always works. Now, what does it do? _She sat down and began going through the computer's main directory. After five or six unfamiliar programs she couldn't make heads or tails of, she hit upon a very familiar program, a school's main site and student directory. She looked at the screen, which was asking for a passcode. _ Passcode, passcode, passc... ultimate pass? They've probably blocked it, but it's worth a shot._ Smiling slightly, she typed Wti$ffo2hiT496itot into the prompt box. The box vanished, leaving her free to mess with the site. She moved the mouse, getting ready to explore "Kadic Jr. High School"'s server, when something beeped. She jerked around, accidentally clicking the add student button as she did so. She couldn't identify where the sound had come from, so she turned back to the computer, only to be confronted by the new student information screen. _Wha? When did that happen? Oh well. I'll fill it out! Fun! 'Drea like this, it's so... strange. Yep, that 's the word. I think. Why do they ask these questions? Why don't they just look up our numbers? I don't get it. The ATC has serious problems. Tu sos son de queso. Your brains are of cheese. I should tell that one to Evan. He'd like it. But not as much as he likes Jane. That's be pretty freaky if he did. Almost as freaky as the time Derek tried to hit on Kitty. 'Phestis didn't like that much. Neither did Kitty. He threw a sharp, pointy thingy at Derek, and she made a cloud of smoke follow him for weeks! _She giggled at the memory of her normally dignified and immaculate partner dirty and disheveled because he had dared to confront her younger friend in a bad mood. An evil grin crossed her face as she imagined what she could do with the favors her other friends owed her to make Derek's life a living hell for a couple of days. _It'd serve him right, too. Playing nasty tricks on innocent little 'Drea. _She thought, conveniently forgetting the fact that she, too, had pranked him only the week before.

She hit the enter key, only to be confronted by a little box informing her that student names could not have numbers. She hit the enter key again, retyped her name in the box, and was presented with the same screen. Student names can not have numbers. She looked at what the little box was really asking her for, and finally noticed that it was not her number, it was her last name they wanted. _But last names haven't been used since the Delegation of 2905. What is a last name, anyway? I know they mentioned it in history class. It was in that unit, the one where they were talking about the major changes of the 28 and 2900's. What did they say? _She chewed her lip silently, desperately trying to remember what a last name was exactly. She sighed frustratedly, and then brightened as the metaphorical light bulb came on in her head. She smacked herself in the forehead, mentally scolding herself. _Duh! The imperfect classification system used for most of history! How could I be so stupid? We only went over it a million times. And did that genealogy project on it. And that 3000 word long minimum paper on what your last name would have been if they were still used. And all the other assignments. Pity I can't remember what mine would have been. Could have used it now. Let's think, what name sounds good with Andrea Aideen? _She thought for a moment, before getting a perfectly hysterical idea, to her mind, at least. _Doria. Andrea Doria. The name of a boat. _She typed it in, giggling slightly and trying to remember the rest of the story that went along with it. _It sank, didn't it? _She wrinkled her nose. _Nice boat, ocean-liner thingy. Very pretty. Pity it sank. I want... Pancakes! Pancakes with butter, and syrup! Blackberry syrup... _She thought dreamily as she hit the enter key yet again. The computer clicked and whirred, finally processing her unintended request. It beeped at her, startling her out of her daydream about fresh, fluffy pancakes and warm blackberry syrup. She glared at it murderously.

"Stupid obsolete computers that don't know when to shut up." She muttered under her breath. Another prompt box faced her, this time telling her that the student's age was incorrect. She scratched her head, unsure of what it wanted from her, then smashed her head against the keyboard, putting in a random series of letters, and surprisingly, only the numbers 1 and 4, and not any others. _Do they want me to say I'm older than I am? Or younger? Or something else entirely? _She made a face as she imagined what the AI this computer could have been would have sounded like. Matronly, sickly sweet, slightly overbearing. _Now dear, the student's age cannot have letters either. _She thought sarcastically to herself, then pressed the enter key. No prompt box came up to tell her she was wrong, and when she looked at the competed form, she saw that it had deleted all the letters she had put in, leaving her age as 14. She raised one eyebrow, then shrugged and looked over the rest of the information she had entered, suddenly realizing that if she said everything was good and proceeded to the next part of the form, something bad would probably happen, since Derek knew that once she had started filling out a form, she had to finish it. _I can be so stupid sometimes. _She sighed to herself as she continued checking the rest of her information. Name: Doria, Andrea Aideen. _Good. _Age: 14 _Whatever. It doesn't really matter. _Grade: 9. _I'm in year 2, what's 9th grade? _

As she continued to the next line, she grinned as she realized that even though she hadn't given them her parent's names or address, it hadn't corrected her. She wiggled slightly and skimmed the rest of the page until she reached some information she hadn't entered that had been filled in for her. Room: 100 Locker: 759 Combination: 7-33-19 P.E. Locker: 17 Combination: 25-3-25 She frowned and chewed on one of the thin shoulder-length braids framing her face. _Lockers? Room numbers? Combinations? How old is this thing? _She pressed the enter key a final time, and somewhere in the room, a printer began humming. Andrea heard something that sounded like footsteps above her, and guiltily closed the programs she had opened. She got up and began looking for the printer, eager to take away any evidence that she had been there. She found it, picked up the piece of paper it had just spat out, and froze as the time and date printed information caught her eye. January 12, 2006. She unfroze suddenly and began hurrying around, trying to find some conformation of what date it was, completely forgetting the footsteps above her. It was a good thing. Had she come up just then, she would have been caught by two men wearing black uniforms, who were looking for someone like her, sneaking around an old abandoned factory for no apparent reason. She spotted the newspaper that Odd had left for Yumi, and picked it up scanning the date. She could tell by the way it was crumpled and torn that it was a few months old, and realized that it must have been from at least a year ago. It said 2005, therefore the year was 2006. As this thought finished it's meandering way through her head, she realized what that meant exactly, and screamed.

The men, who had just left the factory, stopped as what sounded like a scream floated towards them. Then the wind blew through the factory doors, and they continued walking. It had only been a trick of the breeze after all.

Andrea stood there, frozen with shock for the second time that day. _I'm trapped in the past. I'm not where I'm supposed to be. It doesn't exist yet. This is real. Oh God. It's real. Real. I'm not dreaming. Am I? _Slowly, more floating than walking, she moved over to the wall, and then smacked her head against it, hard. Nothing happened, except that she now had a headache. Still mostly frozen with shock, under which lay the knowledge that her head was really going to hurt when she came fully to herself, she moved back to the elevator, clutching her schedule and student information so hard that her fingernails were biting into her hand. She pressed the place next to the button again and again, not noticing that nothing was happening. Finally her hand caught the edge of the button, and the doors opened. She walked in, continuing until she started bumping into the wall. She did that for a minute then turned to the elevator controls, pressing the up button without thinking about it, since her head was still repeating the refrain _I'm stuck in the past. I can't go home._

When the elevator opened she walked out of the factory, mind thawing slightly in the sunshine, which made everything somehow easier to bear than in the subterranean lighting of the rooms beneath the factory floor. Still, she wasn't fully aware of everything around her, which is why when she reached the still open manhole, she fell down it, only alert enough to correctly position her body so that she didn't break anything. She lay there for a moment, mentally going over every part of her body, making sure nothing was out of line or in a strange position. Then she got to her feet, wincing with pain as she did so. She started down the sewer, following the faint marks of recent passage, like those of a few skateboards and a scooter of two might make.

When she climbed out of the sewer into a forest's afternoon sunlight, she was fully alert, with a pounding head and a smarting back. Still, despite her ordeals, she looked relatively neat and tidy, enough to keep people from noticing her, if there had been anyone to see her as she walked toward the looming building she could see off in the distance. When she reached it, she discovered it's dilapidated state, then promptly tripped over a rock, smashing one eye into a protruding root and the rest of her face into the ground. She got back to her feet, feeling her eye gingerly. _That's going to leave a mark. _She thought to herself angrily, as she turned to pick up the piece of paper that had slipped from her grasp. As she straightened up, she saw the second building, much larger than the first, with a large clearing around the part of it she could see. _That one's obviously inhabited. I'll have to come back to this one some time. Look at what secrets it can reveal. Who knows, it might help me find my way back home. _The small voice in the back of her mind asked if she really thought there was any question of her return, since time travel had never been attempted successfully before. She squashed it, refusing to loose hope in the face of her first setback. She set off again, touching her eye from time to time and mulling over what her existence over 1500 years in the past meant for her own time. As she walked down the sidewalk toward the main gates of what obviously was a school, she looked for its name. She smiled at the 'Kadic Junior High School prominently displayed on the fence. Slipping through the crack between the slightly ajar gates, she looked at the full glory of what was to be her school and home for the next indefinite amount of time. It really wasn't much. Most of the school was hidden in deep shadows, a high contrast to the windows reflecting the golden light from the setting sun. The sound of laughter and talking,and the clink of silverware brought her attention to the lit windows of the cafeteria, where she could see human silhouettes, and a few people leaving what must have been dinner. She followed their progress across the courtyard, and into what must have been the dormitories. She started walking towards them, keeping to the shadows in an attempt not to draw attention to herself and her new black eye. She walked through the door, and stopped.

"Oh, great. Just what I needed. Stairs." She stared at them, an insurmountable flight that would probably earn her a few more scrapes and bruises.

"What's wrong with them? My father paid a large amount of money to have them recarpeted I'll have you know." Someone said directly behind her.

Andrea whirled to see a black haired girl backed by two guys. The girl's hair was held back with a wide yellow ribbon, and, surprisingly, she wore both pants and a skirt. The taller of the two boys was blonde and rather stupid looking, and wore very short red shorts. The other boy was black haired, like the girl he followed, and had a very bad case of acne. He anxiously smoothed his green sweater, and looked adoringly at the girl's back, Andrea noticed with a small smile. _He obviously has a huge crush on her. _She thought to herself, tucking the information away for future reference.

"Nothing. I don't have anything against these stairs, just stairs in general. In fact, I'm sure there very nice stairs. I just have balance issues." She said, her smile widening and her face suddenly looking much younger.

"What happened to your eye?" The blonde boy asked curiously.

"Shut UP Nicholas." The girl growled to him. "You're new here, aren't you? She asked snidely, turning to Andrea.

"It's nothing, Nicholas? Is that your name? I'm sorry, I only partially heard what she said." Andrea said, ignoring the girl's question on a basis of idiocy. The boy, _Nicholas_, Andrea reminded herself, nodded shyly.

"What would you like me to call you? Or is Nicholas fine?" She said, moving forward and a little past the girl to face him. He looked rather stunned, as if no one had ever asked him that question.

"Nicholas's fine." He mumbled, blushing faintly. Andrea smiled at him, and his blush deepened.

"I fell again. It's really nothing, it'll clear up in a few days. Thank you for asking though." She said, giving the full reply his question deserved. She grinned at him for the first time, and he turned almost as red as his shorts.

"Wow, you really are new. Everyone knows he's as dumb as a post." The girl said, a cruel smile on her face. Nicholas hung his head, ashamed. Andrea moved forward and patted his shoulder.

"At least he asks sensible questions, instead of stupid ones like whether or not I'm new." Andrea spat, turning the insult on end.

The other boy lunged at her, and yelled "Don't talk that way to Sissi!" Nicholas gasped, and Sissi smirked slightly. Andrea calmly sidestepped the boy who was out for her throat, and cupped her hand around his instead. She held him there for a minute, then released him and moved out of her defensive position. He rubbed at his throat, and glared at her.

"You know, you really need to work on your technique. The way you did it left you wide open. If I hadn't been feeling nice because someone was concerned about my well-being, I probably would have just kicked you and let that be the end of that. What I used was a move straight out of Wan-Su, you know. One of my favorite self-defenses. Now, what your name?" She said, as if she was completely unaware of the death glare she was receiving. He didn't answer, so she turned back to the girl.

"You're...?"

"Sissi."

"Pleased to meet you Sissi, I'm Andrea." Andrea said, extending her hand and smiling, though she already had a bad feeling about Sissi's intents. Sissi didn't react, and Andrea shrugged and dropped her hand. She linked her hands and stretched her arms above her head.

"What're you doing?" Sissi asked as Andrea leaned backwards until her hands touched the floor, and then shifted her feet up into a handstand.

"Stretching." Andrea replied, as if it was obvious, and lowered herself into a gymnastics move called a candlestick. She proceeded to turn a backwards somersault and get back to her feet. As she slid into the splits, she looked at the small group of people that had gathered, having nothing better to do, as they had all left dinner early.

"Can any of you tell me what floor room 100's on?" She asked politely as she pressed one hand to the floor and lifted one foot above her head.

"It's the second story." A red-headed girl said as her African friend snapped a picture.

"Thanks!" Andrea said cheerfully, getting back to her feet and facing the stairs. She put her hands on the fifth step and swung herself up into a handstand, then backwards into a bridge, and then back upright. She repeated this move until she reached the second floor, and began walking down the hallway as if nothing untoward had happened. The girls in the crowd, who had followed her up the stairs, looked after her, some in stupefied amazement, some in awe, and some with unbelieving stares at her retreating back.

When she reached room 100, Andrea tried to open the door, only to find it locked. She frowned at the knob, then reached up and pulled a hairpin from her head. She knelt, and began staring intensely at it as she expertly picked the lock. Finally the door swung open and she walked inside, flipping on the lights as she did so, as it was now too dark to see without them. One side of the room had obviously been used recently. Though the posters were on all four walls, one of the beds had sheets, and one of the dressers had a sleeve hanging limply from inside one of the drawers. The other bed was bare except for a mattress, and Andrea immediately move to it, fishing in her pocket as she did so. After about five minutes of searching, she came up with sheets, pillows, a stuffed cat, patched, with fraying seams, and a giant, flame colored quilt. As she quickly made her bed, arranging the pillows and the cat artistically, even though she would be sleeping there in less than an hour, she looked around the room, gaging her roommate by her taste in colors and accessories. Since the other girls tastes didn't clash too much with her own, she decided that she was probably nice, though she immediately scolded herself for basing her decision on someone else's tastes, and not on who they actually were.

As she continued to mentally beat herself up, she moved over to the dresser, searching her pocket for the clothes she had shoved there three days before. She came up with some very random things, throwing them aside, until she came up with a long staff with metal capped ends. It was lovingly made of rich cherry, perfectly balanced by someone who knew what they were doing. She carefully propped it by the head of her bed, murmuring "Good, nice Charlotte, very nice Charlotte." As she did so, before going back to her search. Time passed and slowly her dresser, and her half of the room, became full and somewhat organized. She began cleaning up the strange things she had pulled out of her pocket, stopping now and then to tuck something she hadn't previously noticed into a drawer or onto a shelf. When she was finished, she looked around at the room, which had changed rather dramatically from its previous existence as a single girl's dorm into a room that now held pieces of Andrea, blending somewhat harmoniously with what had been there before. She sat down on the bed, ignoring her hunger pangs, and began yet again to search her pocket. _Diary, Diary... Where is that blasted thing, I have a lot to say tonight. _She wondered as she felt around. Extra dimensional pockets are one of the greatest inventions of the 28th century. The basic premise is that you take the space that your pocket would usually take up and connect it to an extra-dimensional space, and then shove everything you don't want to carry in there. The only down side, as Andrea knew very well, was that unless you were exceedingly organized, you could never find what you were looking for. Instead of her diary, Andrea so far had come up with her old teddy bear, a shoe horn, the school planner she had gotten from her older sister for Christmas, an English assignment that was two weeks overdue, and a rabbit cage. In short succession, a bottle of acne medicine, a very old left shoe, and a package of embroidery needles joined the small heap on the floor. The heap grew, and weirder stuff started coming up. She only paused in her relentless search to rub her stomach and bury her hunger pangs deeper. Meanwhile, down in the cafeteria, dinner was still going on, and the smell of spaghetti floated to her nose, levitating her cramps into the unbearable stage of hunger. At that moment, she came up with her mini-fridge, and proceeded to eat until she no longer hurt, before placing it under her bed and continuing to search for her diary.


	2. The Persistent Mirage

Gasp. Shock. The HORROR! I updated. Scary thought, I know. Sorry it took me so long. I've been overwhelmed by many other things, such as my compy being a moron and crashing every three minutes, schoolwork, more schoolwork, getting sick, hurting myself seriously (I'm at #5 on the serious injuries list, and the guys in Woodworking are starting to make bets as to whether or not I'll kill myself with one of the tools in the shop before the end of the school year.), and other unsundry things. Fun, no? And a very warm thank you to SconemeepT.T, who made my day/week/month/whatever by reveiwing. And I forgot the disclaimer last time. Face it, if it's up here, and you've heard of it, it doesn't belong to me. Unless I convince Brother Dearest to help me storm the castle that is Moonscoop and I win the lottery. Then I could buy it! BWHAHAHAHAHA!!! Okay, I'll shut up now, and let you get to the more interesting part.

* * *

Odd got up from the table get himself thirds. Usually someone would have teased him about it, but tonight wasn't usual. Jeremie and Aelita were having a long and involved argument about what the computers of the future would be like, and Ulrich was too interested to care about Odd's helpings, although he didn't take part in the discussion, not knowing, or caring, enough about computers to add to the conversation. 

"No, they won't!"

"Yes, Aelita, they will. In fact, if archaeologists were to find the supercalculator a mere 1000 years in the future, they would marvel at its basic functions and useless programs."

"And I say that either the sun will expand, destroying this planet, or all the computers will crash, leaving no need for them."

"In the next 1000 years? The sun has over 5 billion left, and you say it's going to expand and destroy the planet? It's not going to happen, and as for your other theory, even if the computers did crash, there are things you can do to remedy that problem."

"Not if every single computer's crashed. And computers can't get that much better. It's impossible."

"Aelita, the logic behind that is completely off. That's what they said about the first computers, too, but look how far we've come."

"Jeremie, you may know computers, but you don't know people. How much more inventive can they get? I don't think it's likely."

Odd sat down again, looked at both of his friends, and promptly inhaled his food. He shoved his char back and stood up along with his tray.

"I'm for bed, before this gets out of hand. Next thing you know, they'll be at each other's throats. Night all." He walked away, humming some new piece of music. Ulrich glanced at his watch and stood up, stretching. He looked after his roommate's retreating back, and sighed audibly.

"I'd best keep an eye on him. Hopefully he won't snore too badly." He too walked out of the cafeteria. Neither Aelita nor Jeremie noticed. They continued to argue, the subject changing from computers to people to civilization.

"But that's just plain stupid! Why would anyone want to do that?" Aelita yelled, her eyes flashing with anger.

"It's just the way the government works!" Jeremie yelled back, exasperated.

"Then the government's stupid!" Aelita screamed. Jeremie sighed.

"Everyone knows that, Aelita."

"Stones! Bellopollis!" Someone bellowed behind them. They both jumped, as neither of them had realized their P.E. Teacher, Jim, had been behind them until he had started shouting. "What're you still doing here? Dinner ended and hour and a half ago! Gert out of here and let us clean!"

"Yes Jim." They said in unison, picked up their trays and walked out, handing their dirty dishware to the cafeteria lady who was up to her elbows in a pan of soapy water. As they walked back to the dorms, Jeremie tried to explain to Aelita that the government didn't always make sense, but that it did the best with what it had. His beleaguered explanation stopped when they actually entered the building, because the groups of students, telling avid listeners what the crazy girl had done, distracted him from his purpose.

"I'm serious! He lunged at her, and she just sidestepped and told him to work on his technique."

"Who lunged at whom?" Jeremie asked, confused by this snippet of information. The red-head whom Andrea had talked to earlier sighed.

"Herve lunged at the new girl. She didn't even care! It was like she was watching a movie she'd seen far to many times, and so wasn't even going to bother with following the script. And as I was saying, after she'd told him to work on his technique, she started doing bridges and handstands and other gymnastics tricks."

"Why'd he lunge at her? Did she hurt him or something?" Aelita asked, also confused, but not for the same reason Jeremie was.

"She managed to insult Sissi without saying anything that could get her in trouble, and stood up for Nicholas at the same time. It was rather amazing, actually." Said someone from behind them. They turned to see a tall young man with spiky black hair, arms crossed in front of his chest.

William Dunbar, popular, handsome, and the bane of Ulrich's existence. He had decided earlier that year that Yumi was the love of his life, and now vied with Ulrich for her affections. Aelita sighed, her view on him tainted by Ulrich's opinion. For some reason, she was no longer interested in the strange new girl.

"Goodnight." She said, walking away up the stairs without another word. Jeremie and William looked at each other for a moment, confused, before Jeremie shrugged and made his way to his room, leaving William to stare after his retreating back, not unlike the way he had earlier for a much stranger person.

Aelita walked down the hall, not really noticing the numbers on the doors lining the hall as she passed them. Finally she realized that she was now approaching room 127, and turned back, this time actually stopping at her door and fumbling for her key as she tried the handle without thinking. When it swung open, she fell into the room, grumbling about faulty locks and dysfunctional lights. Not bothering to turn them off, she flopped onto her bed and rolled over to look at the ceiling. She didn't make it. She was stopped by the bed opposite hers, or, more accurately, by the place where the bed opposite hers had been. It was now covered in a huge pile of stuff, and now that she was thinking about it, Aelita could hear vague mumblings coming from inside it, along with the crunching of what sounded like corn chips.

"Diary... Diary... Wow, it's not in here. Neither are these... Wait... They are... And they're... Six weeks old! EWWW!!!!!!!!!"

The offending bag flew out a hole in the gigantic pile. Aelita stared at them with abject horror, before gathering the courage to speak.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in my room?" She said hesitantly.

The heap went very still, and in the expectant silence, Aelita could hear the wind whistling outside.

"Oh, shoot." Someone in the pile whispered, and then something clicked, and the entire pile vanished in a flash of blue light, leaving a young woman with strangely thick brown hair holding a slim green book protectively. The first thing Aelita noticed about the opposite bed was the bright, flame colored quilt dominating the other side of the room. The girl, with her dark, somewhat subdued clothes, stood out like a stain on a white garment.

"Umm... I'm Andrea, your new roommate." She paused, as if unsure what to say, "I just came here, so you don't know me. And you didn't see any of that." She tacked hurriedly onto the end of her sentence. She looked at Aelita, wide-eyed with innocence, as if awaiting a reply. Aelita just looked at Andrea for a moment, her tired and befuddled brain trying to make some sense out of what the other girl had said.

"Okay then. None of this is making sense, and I'm too tired to figure it out. When I wake up in the morning, you'll be gone and this will just be a dream." She faced the wall, rapidly drifting towards dreamland, only to be interrupted by Andrea's voice.

"Aren't you going to turn the lights off?" She asked quizzically. Aelita groaned and rolled over again.

"You want the lights off, turn them off yourself." She muttered, turning back to the wall. She heard soft footsteps and then the lights were off. The footsteps moved back to the opposite side of the room, and she heard the covers being adjusted.

"Goodnight!" Andrea said cheerfully. Aelita merely grumbled in reply. There was a short pause, then there was a soft light, and a gentle tap of fingers on a keyboard, not that Aelita noticed, since she was already asleep.

When she woke up the next morning, Andrea was already up, sitting on her freshly made bed, legs crossed in lotus position, working on a laptop. She was entirely absorbed in her task, humming softly under her breath as she worked busily, until she suddenly leaned back and stretched like a cat. She finally noticed Aelita and grinned at her, snapping the computer shut and shoving it under her bed.

"Good morning! Did you sleep well?"

Aelita blinked at her and then did the one and only thing that made sense. She rammed her head against the wall. She looked back at Andrea, who was still sitting there, and decided she hadn't hit her head hard enough. She smashed it against the wall again, harder.

"No matter how many times you do that, it's not going break through the wall. believe me, I've tried." Andrea told her, quite seriously. Aelita looked at her, slightly cross-eyed, and rubbed her head.

"Why won't you just go away?" She muttered blearily. Andrea looked at her as if she was crazy and shook her head.

"Do you think I would be here if I had a choice? I don't even belong in this country, much less this century. I'd much rather be home." She snapped, then paused, realizing what she had just said. "And you didn't just hear that." She added.

Aelita rummaged through her drawers, throwing clothes on. Strangely, everything item of clothing she seemed to own was pink, and Andrea was suddenly reminded of her friend Kitti, who's hair was the exact same shade as her new roommates.

"Right." Aelita replied, not paying attention as she reached for her cell phone. She dialed a number and held it to her ear, where it promptly vanished, its body being the exact same color of pink as her hair.

"Jeremie, there's a persistent mirage in my room. Can you come tell me if I'm crazy, or if all humans see them?" She said into the receiver. There was some mumbling on the other end, but she cut it off with a curt "Thanks Jeremie. Goodbye." She shut her phone, and looked over at Andrea, who was absently chewing on one of the shoulder length thin braids that were by far the most normal part of her strange hairstyle. Her hair was unusually bulky around the top of her head, as if she had far more hair than she should have, yet it ended in a braid that went only down to her middle back. Andrea fidgeted slightly in the long and rather awkward pause that she found herself part of, then someone started banging on the door. Aelita grumbled exasperatedly, but opened it anyway, revealing a young man with dark brown hair dressed in green pants and jacket over a lighter green shirt. He asked Aelita a question very softly, appearing not to see Andrea, only to have his attempt at secrecy shattered by Aelita's loud reply.

"Hair gel? What does Odd need hair gel for? And Ulrich, what's hair gel?" As the boy, Ulrich, tried to explain the enigma that was hair gel, Andrea began rummaging through her drawers, mumbling to herself distractedly.

"I know put it in here, but where? It has to be in this drawer. I remember putting it in this particular drawer, it's gotta be around here somewh- Ah! Found it!" She said, moving very quietly towards the door. She could almost envision what she must have looked like to Ulrich, an unknown girl appearing behind Aelita suddenly bearing a large bottle of what appeared to be hair gel, though the label was in some strange foreign language.

"Where does it need to go?" She asked Ulrich, who was staring at her as if she had just floated through a wall.

"Wha- Who're you?" He asked incredulously. She raised an eyebrow at him, and then opened her mouth to speak, only to be cut off by Aelita.

"She's my personal persistent mirage, Ulrich. Just tell her where to go."

"What's her name?"

"Andr-"

"She says it's Andrea, but she's a figment of my imagination, so you can't believe her."

Andrea scowled childishly at her roommate, annoyed at being interrupted so many times. She looked back at Ulrich inquisitively, shifting her grip on the bottle. He sighed softly, shoulders slumping, and pointed down the hall.

"Room 263."

She dashed off, rounding the corner, the reconsidered and came running back.

"That's upstairs, right?"

He nodded, and she ran off again. They could hear the clumping of Andrea's boots as she ran up the stairs, and then an almighty crash as she slipped and tumbled back down again. Ulrich looked at Aelita and then glanced down the hall. She nodded, and they began walking towards the stairwell. When they reached it, Andrea was trying to get herself out of the position she had fallen into, almost in a handstand, with only her head and shoulders on the floor, legs against the wall, with her feet pointing towards the ceiling. They stared at her for a moment, and then Ulrich helped her to her feet. She smiled and nodded her thanks, and turned grimly back to the stairs. Her eyes narrowed and she grabbed the handrail so tightly her knuckles turned white. She began to walk slowly up them, tripping once or twice, only just saving herself by her grip on the handrail. When she got to the top, she leaned against the wall for a moment, sighing with relief at getting up the stairs in one piece. Then she was up and running again, skidding to a stop in front of room 263. Oblivious to the strange looks she was getting from the other boys, she pulled her clothes straight, and tugged on her braid gently, then knocked.

"I'm not coming out, Ulrich! Not without some sort of hair gel!" Someone yelled from inside. Andrea shook her head, and pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand.

"It's the hair gel fairy. Open up." She said, mimicking Ulrich's voice perfectly, even though she had only spoken to him once. The door opened and she got an impression of purple clothing as she was dragged inside, door slamming shut after her.

"You're not Ulrich!" The boy who dragged her in the room said. He was dressed entirely in purple, from his retro purple bell-bottoms, which had faded drastically on one side, to his loose, shoulder-length blonde hair, with its randomly splattered purple splotches. It framed his open, expressive face, which was clearly showing his complete confusion at her presence.

"Nope." She replied, using her own voice. "I'm not." She held the bottle of hair gel out to him, a peace offering of sorts. "I do come bearing hair gel though. I'd ask to come in, but I already am, so it's kinda pointless. I'm Andrea. Are you Odd?"

"Yep. The one and only." He replied, grabbing the hair gel from her and walking over to the mirror. She followed him, curious as to what he was going to do with it. She stood behind him for a moment as he searched through a drawer, looking for something, a comb presumably, before her curiosity overcame her.

"What're you going to do with it? Something for your hair, I hope. No offense, but not only do you need it, that style really doesn't suit you, but I'm not going to let you prank someone with it. Well, not unless they really deserve it, but as I don't know if they really deserve it, if you are going to prank someone with it, I'll have it back and take my chances with Zachie."

He came up with a comb, as she had suspected, and looked at her, confused. As he opened the bottle of hair gel and began using the comb to help him shape his hair into a point sticking straight up, he met her eyes in the mirror.

"Why would I prank someone with it? There aren't any good pranks that use hair gel, and, as you said, I need it. And who's Zachie?"

Andrea shook her head at him, noticing as she watched their reflections in the mirror that the purple splotches in his hair weren't randomly placed, but instead formed a large dot above his forehead, drawing the eye to his rather exuberant hairstyle. He made eye contact through the mirror again, and she shrugged.

"There are plenty of good pranks you can do with hair gel." She remarked nonchalantly. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she smiled slightly. "I should know. I've used most of them." Both his eyebrows went up, and she laughed and sat down on one of the two beds in the room. There was a moment of silence, and then he spoke up.

"So... What sort of pranks can you do?" He asked carelessly, in a way that made it clear that he cared a lot. She grinned rather evilly and flexed her fingers, sitting up.

"Oh, let's see..." He took one look at her face and grinned to match hers, knowing through some sixth sense that she was going to solve all his problems with Sissi for a very long time.

* * *

"So, Aelita. You have a persistent mirage?" Jeremie asked, sitting down next to her at the cafeteria table. Aelita nodded and hastily chewed a mouthful of oatmeal. 

"She says her name is Andrea, and she's crazy!"

"She is strange. But I don't think she's a mirage." Ulrich stated, sitting down across from them. Aelita began to open her mouth to say something scathing, then stopped, and shut it again.

"Jeremie, what's a mirage?"

Jeremie smacked his forehead with one hand, sighing at Aelita's unwillingness to look up words she didn't know before using them.

"Well?"

"It's a figment of your imagination brought on by heat and lack of water."

"Oh. Then she really wouldn't be a mirage then, would she?"

"Yes."

"Then what is she?"

Jeremie sighed and prepared himself to figure out what exacty this unknown girl could be.

* * *

"That's a lot of pranks." 

"And those are only the good ones. Do you know any others?"

"What? Pranks having to do with hair gel?"

"No. Pranks in general. Especially pertaining to guys, especially neat-freak guys who need everything to be just so or they go ballistic. I'm down to my last resort, the one Zachie taught me with the duct tape and feathers, and I need some new ones."

"Duct tape? And feathers?"

"Yes. It's not as good as the one Nicky taught me, but it's all I've got left. Nicky is Zachie's brother."

"But who's Zachie?" Odd asked exasperatedly, having asked it twice already. Andrea looked at him calmly, and then said, as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world,

"My Brother-in-law."

Odd stared at her. She looked back, not realizing how unusual it was to have a brother-in-law at her age. The silence stretched on into awkwardness, and then she seemed to realize that his family differed from hers.

"I have a very large family. I have four siblings, two younger and two older, a brother-in-law, a sister-in-law, two nieces and a nephew, nine cousins, four uncles, three aunts, two parents, four grandparents, three cats, and a dog. Well, Petal is actually Jeanie's dog, and Henry has two goldfish, and I don't know how may pets Ciara and Micheal's families have at the moment, and I refuse to count my third and fourth cousins, but it's a pretty close count. What's your family like?"

"I have a cousin. Her name is Aelita Stones. She goes to this school as well. You'd remember her if you'd met her, since she has pink hair."

"Really? Then she must be my roommate. Glad to know her name. Hey! I can touch my nose with my tongue!" Andrea demonstrated this remarkable achievement, and laughed. Odd looked impressed, then tried to do it himself, failing miserably. Andrea shook her head, and turned so that he could see her profile. She demonstrated again, and he tried again, getting a little further, but still not managing it.

"Some people just can't do it. Keep practicing, though. You might eventually be able to do it." She smiled at him again, a cheerful childish smile that made him trust her for some reason. Suddenly, she jumped up, her eyes widening.

"Is there a cafeteria around here somewhere? I'm hungry, and I haven't had breakfast yet."

Odd clapped a hand to his forehead, face horrified.

"Not had breakfast? That is a tragedy! But can be fixed. Follow me!"

He lead the way out of the dormitories, and to the food.

* * *

"Therefore she can't logically be a mirage, though she could be a figment of the imagination. Though that isn't plausible considering you've both seen her." Jeremie said, concluding his analysis of the 'persistent mirage'. 

"Who is she, anyway? Where'd she come from?" Yumi asked, leaning against the wall.

"Nobody knows. She could have come from practically anywhere, though I think it's somewhere in North America from her clothes."

"Yes, her clothes-"

The group of four people stopped talking as unfamiliar laughter sounded behind them, and Ulrich blinked as he got his first good look at Aelita's mysterious roommate, since the two other times he had seen her, she had been either upside-down, behind someone, moving very fast, or all three. Andrea was slim and willowy, almost fragile looking, but for the way she held herself, and could have possibly passed as a boy with a little disguisement on her part. She was just a few inches taller than Odd, he saw, as Odd shut the door he had been uncharacteristically holding open for her behind them. Her hairstyle and clothes were nothing short of absolutely ordinary compared to his, with her braid and loose pants, long-sleeved shirt, and down-to-earth boots, but she somehow seemed even stranger than his friend and roommate. Perhaps because she was unthinkingly bouncing on the balls of her feet as she walked with Odd, perhaps because she had made him into a polite gentleman for once, doing things like opening the door for her, perhaps because she had an air of inborn confidence that fairly shouted that she could take care of herself, and take on the world at the same time, despite her fragile features and childlike attitude. Or perhaps it was merely because of her smile of utter happiness, the same one she had worn that morning that had almost made him break his cold exterior and smile back, without a reason to. She was very strange, and would have to be watched carefully, he decided, before a high-pitched, whiny voice distracted him.

"Ulrich, dear, when are you going to stop-" Sissi ceased talking as Andrea ran past her and threw her arms around Nicholas.

"Nicky! How's my absolute favorite boy on campus?" She cried, laughter evident in her voice. Sissi scowled, and Nicholas flushed, though Andrea didn't seem to notice either reaction.

"Nicky?" Odd asked, standing a little ways behind her.

"Hey! I already have two in the family. It's a habit!" She threw back at him over her shoulder.

"You're brother-in-law's brother and...?"

"And a third cousin on my mother's side. I don't really know him, just that he has a name. Its not like me and Joycelin and Darrin and Todd. But how are you Nicky? Do you mind if I call you that?" She asked, releasing him from her hold at last. His cheeks were redder than anyone had ever remembered seeing them, but he shook his head and mumbled something about being absolutely fine. Her smile grew, and she nodded at him good naturedly.

"Old habits die hard. Thanks."

Nicholas, or Nicky, as everyone was now going to call the quiet boy, much to his embarrassment, started to mumble something unintelligible, but was cut off by Sissi.

"Agate? What's that supposed to stand for?" She asked snidely, insulting Andrea, and the clothes she wore, in an attempt to intimidate the strange new girl. Andrea merely looked at her, her expression saying "Don't you know anything?" as clearly as if she had said it out loud.

"A.G.I.T. Academy. Graduate. In. Training. You know, the people with the strange motto? To save the world one day at a time?" She looked around her for some form of comprehension, and finding none, let out a sigh of exasperation and stomped off, saying something that elicited a loud "Hey!" from Odd, in a different language. She stopped, looked back at him, and amended her statement.

"Everybody but you, Nicky."

"HEY!"

She laughed and vanished into the cafeteria as the bell signaling the beginning of passing period, and the fact that they had all better hurry to class, rang.

"What did she say?" Jeremie asked Odd, who had been the only person to understand what she had said.

"I'm surrounded by idiots. Complete and total idiots."

"That wasn't very nice." Aelita commented. "Oh, and you missed-"

"Breakfast's gone!" Andrea wailed, running out of the cafeteria. Odd gasped in horror, and clapped a hand to his forehead dramatically. Andrea glanced at him, and began fiddling with her pocket, eventually pulling out a granola bar, that by all rights shouldn't have been able to fit in there without showing, broke it neatly in half, and handed part of Odd, who immediately shoved it in his mouth. There was a moment of silence between them as they both hurriedly chewed and swallowed, and then Odd spoke, completely ignoring the others.

"What's your first class?"

Andrea handed him her schedule, and he scanned it quickly, brightening as he read her information.

"We have Language Arts together first period. I'll show you where the classroom is."

He began to walk off, Andrea following slightly behind, waving at her roommate Aelita, new best friend Nicholas, and the other people who had been standing around them, when Odd stopped and she walked into him.

"Do you have any more of those granola bars?"

She silently handed him one, suddenly apprehensive about going to this school, for reasons even she couldn't comprehend, and followed her second new friend as he lead her to what might be her certain doom.

* * *

And there you have it. A further 14 pages of sugary goodness. So there. And my undying gratitude goes to anyone who reads this, with an added chocolate chip cookie if you reveiw. But that's all I have to say for the moment, so, so long for now!

-'Drea

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